Impacts of Manufacturing Specialized and Diversified Agglomeration on the Eco-Innovation Efficiency—A Nonlinear Test from Dynamic Perspective

Abstract

Eco-innovation is the main driver of realizing the coordinated development of resource, environmental and economic systems. This paper measures regional eco-innovation efficiency (EIE) by using the Super-Slack Based Measure (SBM) model with undesirable outputs and distinguishes different agglomeration patterns based on Chinese data of 21 manufacturing sub-industries of 30 provinces. In particular, from the perspective of the dynamic evolution of manufacturing agglomeration, the nonlinear effects of specialized and diversified agglomeration on EIE are investigated based on panel threshold regression models. The results indicate that China’s EIE shows a U-shaped changing trend. The impacts of specialized and diversified agglomeration on EIE are nonlinear and have significant three-threshold effects. There exist a U-shaped relationship between specialized agglomeration and EIE, and an S-shaped relationship between diversified agglomeration and EIE. In terms of eco-innovation, the development of diversified agglomeration is superior to that of specialized agglomeration. Overall, there is still much room for more than 70% of provinces in China to increase their EIE by optimizing the layout of manufacturing specialized and diversified agglomeration. To improve the EIE and achieve sustainable economic growth, differentiated agglomeration policies should be formulated in various stages and regions. In addition, the driving mechanism of eco-innovation should be strengthened.

Industrial Coagglomeration, Green Innovation, and Manufacturing Carbon Emissions: Coagglomeration’s Dynamic Evolution Perspective

“…The pollution halo hypothesis holds that FDI can bring frontier technology to the host countries, which helps to enhance production efficiency; thus decreasing manufacturing carbon emissions. However, the pollution paradise hypothesis shows that FDI is a channel for advanced countries to transfer high-carbon and heavy-pollution industries to other countries, which intensifies the manufacturing carbon emissions of the host countries [ 22 ]. We chose the proportion of foreign capital to the paid-in capital of industrial enterprises to weigh the open degree.…”

“…Regarding the possible impact mechanism of industrial coagglomeration on manufacturing carbon emissions, first, according to the theory of agglomeration economy, industrial coagglomeration gathers various enterprises together, which can reduce information and transaction costs, facilitate enterprises‘ sharing of knowledge and technology, and strengthen their exchanges, cooperation, and competition [ 22 ]. Effective industrial coagglomeration is beneficial for the generation of economies of scale, knowledge spillover, cooperation, sharing, and benign competition effects [ 22 ]. Second, as an intermediate input sector, producer service industry runs through the entire manufacturing industry chain.…”

“…Meanwhile, coagglomeration itself is usually accompanied by a rise in the enterprise number and scale, which will also cause more manufacturing carbon emissions in the agglomeration regions [ 23 ], namely, the carbon emission increase effect brought by scale expansion. Third, due to resource constraints, when the enterprise number and scale exceed the carrying capacity of the agglomeration regions and reach a saturation state, a crowding effect will occur [ 22 ]. Due to the malignant resource competition, production costs will rise and the benign agglomeration effects of industrial coagglomeration in the regions will weaken, which is adverse to lowering manufacturing carbon emissions.…”

“…Some studies have shown that industrial coagglomeration might affect green innovation, which is a critical factor for undergoing manufacturing low-carbon transformation [ 25 , 26 ]. Moderate industrial coagglomeration can pool innovation resources, make it easier for upstream and downstream enterprises in an industrial chain to cooperate, and enhance technology spillover [ 22 , 23 ]. These factors are beneficial for the improvement of green innovation.…”

Eco-economic mechanism of formation of the system of national priorities in the conditions of sustainable development

“…The calculation of regional efficiency of ecological innovations, which are the main driver of the coordinated development of resource, ecological and economic systems, is carried out in their research by Chinese scientists [2]. They argue that in order to achieve sustainable economic growth, it is necessary to form a differentiated policy of agglomeration at different stages and regions and to strengthen the driving mechanism of eco-innovation.…”